Introducing Nagini!

[Arirang]

Hello, all!

Last night I finally got my long-awaited royal python, Nagini (which makes me Voldemort, I guess)! My phone is borking up, so I can't do photos right now.

Nagini is just shy of two feet long right now. Gender is undetermined and I am not paying $89 for my vet to do it, so we're calling her a female. She lives in (if I do say so) a gorgeous 40-gallon ExoTerra terrarium with a Southeast Asian decoration motif and twice-milled cypress bedding. Now, I know what people who know snakes will say- that terrarium is too big for her right now! Never fear- I picked the snake before the house, and happened to know that this one is very gregarious and exploratory. Indeed, for about an hour last night, she was exploring her new dominion whereas most snakes would bolt for the nearest hide and stay there.

She's been a little shy today, preferring to hide inside her temple statue for now, but of course they prefer evening/nights anyways. Feeding days are every Wednesday.

Here's a selfie of me with her.

 

[Furballsmom]

LoL, thanks for the update!

 

[Willowy]

Yay! I have 3 ball pythons, they're pretty cool.

BPs aren't good eaters in general, and if anything in their life isn't perfect, they may go off feed. Some BPs may not eat in an enclosure that's too large. So if she doesn't eat for you, move her to something smaller, block off part of the large tank, or add a LOT of fake vines and tight hiding places, like really clutter the tank up. But if she'll eat for you, it's all good .

 

[neely]

Thanks for the interesting info. on BP's - I never knew that before. Then again I've never had snakes before either.

 

[DreamerRose]

What are you going to feed it?

 

[Willowy]

Thanks for the interesting info. on BP's - I never knew that before. Then again I've never had snakes before either.

BPs are awesome, gentle, laid-back snakes, which is why they're recommend for beginners. But oh the feeding issues. That's the most frustrating thing about them, and probably the #1 reason beginners give up on snake keeping.

Anyway, if you have any questions, let me know. I'll see if I can help.

 

[Arirang]

Feeding went very well last night. I followed PetSmart's method for feeding snakes, which has always been very successful- put them in a smaller tank, feed (a thawed frozen juvenile mouse, for the person that asked), wait about twenty minutes for them to swallow, then gently and quickly return them to the habitat. It went flawlessly!

 

[Willowy]

Glad to hear it! A lot of BP people are not in favor of feeding outside the enclosure, but hey, if it works it works.

Do you know how much she weighs? A juvenile mouse may be too small (although a smaller one is good as a first meal in her new home). For a juvenile snake, you want to feed 10%-15% of her body weight weekly. So if she's 200 grams you want a 20-30 gram rodent, for example.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a kitchen scale so you can make sure she's gaining well.

 

[Arirang]

Considering she only just recently started eating, and since I bought a 6-pack, I am going to continue with fuzzies for now. May change after. I don't want a finicky snake.

 

[Willowy]

Yeah, of course use up the package. But just saying, mouse fuzzies (usually 4-6 grams) are severe underfeeding for a BP. Even a hatchling ought to have a meal that weighs 10-15 grams. I don't want to be a pain, but this is a major pet peeve in the snake hobby, so if I don't say it, someone else will, and they might not be very nice!

Many pet stores deliberately underfeed their snakes to keep them from growing, as most people want a baby snake. This will keep them alive but will cause health problems eventually. 2 of my BPs were underfed as babies, and were hatchling-sized (100 grams) at a year old. They should have weighed at least 600 grams at that age. If you want to see healthy growth, you'll have to get bigger rodents. Or try to get her to eat 2-3 of the fuzzies, although many BPs don't like to take multiples.

Try to get her on rats as soon as you can. BPs can get "addicted" to mice and refuse rats, and that can be a real pain when she's grown and needs 4 or 5 mice at a time! If you look at breeder ads, and they say that a snake is a "mouser" and sell it for a lower price, they mean that snake won't eat rats. Which many breeders find annoying, which is why they sell for less.

 

[Arirang]

The rat was actually the way to get her to eat mice- we had to rub the mice on rats that were fed moments later to other snakes to entice her to eat it. I'm not worried about her getting picky.

I am a bit worried now about underfeeding... I was told to feed something the same size as the widest part of her body, which is about a fuzzy.

 

[Willowy]

My, she's skinny! A fuzzy mouse is only about as big around as my pinky finger, I think.

The 10%-15% of body weight rule is more accurate. They stretch .